Category Archives: Holidays

Friday night we had our first annual (hoping there will be many more in the future) International Student Pumpkin Carving and Chili Party with American friends from our church and their “friendship partners” through UNT. It was so much! I didn’t get a pic of the finished pumpkins, but they were sooo good! who knew that they would be so good talented at pumpkin carving?!

the kids painted little pumpkins… Lydia was super into it.

Halloween week 2015

Our third annual Halloween Party with the McGough clan! We ate, talked, laughed, celebrated the fall birthdays, decorated pumpkins with stickers and glitter glue and the cousins had tons of fun running around. Always a fun time when we all get together. Thankful for this tradition!

Happy Birthday to Uncle Scott, Daddy, Colin & Liddy bug!

we love Papa

These two are so much fun to watch as they interact with each other. Lydia now calls Chloe, “chlo bo”, which is the cutest thing ever. They have started to “play” together, Chloe follows Lydia everywhere, they love to hug and kiss each other goodnight, Chloe can’t wait for Lydia to wake up each morning, we have heard them giggling and “talking” as they both fall asleep, they have started to fight over toys because Chloe now claims things as “mine”, Chloe likes to slug Lydia when she is doing something she doesn’t like (she even tried to pinch her the other day for sitting in my lap… guys, I am little nervous about 2s with this one! ha), they love each other and I pray they become the best of friends and that they will always love, laugh, cry, encourage and pray for each other as they walk through life. Sisters are the best!

we had the opportunity to take one of our Saudi family friends to the Flowermound Pumpkin Patch last night! It was there first time, after living in America for 5 years, to go to a pumpkin patch and they LOVED it! It was so fun to see our girls run around with their girls and enjoy the pumpkins, dirt and playhouses. As we were walking around my friend leaned over and told me that she had coffee, tea and dates in the car and asked if there was a spot we could sit and drink them together. This made my heart so happy and made me miss our time in the Middle East. In Arab culture they always plan to have picnic with their community and family wherever and whenever it is possible. I love how community oriented and hospitable they are. I think that Americans can learn a thing or two from them about how we interact with community and host people.

Chloe Jane, 18 months

Chloe is our little spunky sweetheart. She melts our hearts with her smile, her hugs, her kisses, and just her general cuteness. She loves baby dolls, her big sister, oranges, reading books, playing outside, singing nursery rhymes, her pappy (pacci) wrestling with daddy, cuddling, giggling, and talking on the phone. She is saying a few words. Some of her go tos are: “bye bye”, “two”, “ball”, “tant you”, “more”, “dawn (done)”, “mommy”, “daddy”, “puppy”, “pappy (pacci)” and she loves to giber jabber. She still does not have all her teeth, but we are working hard (i.e. having a tough time) at getting them all. She is not a great eater at the moment- not sure if she is just picky or if its because of her teeth and because we have had a nasty cold that has lasted for over two weeks! Loving Chlo Bo at this age, wish I could just bottle her up and keep her my little peanut forever. She is 19.8 lbs and 3% in height and weight and 50% for her head.

Lydia May, 3 years

Lydia is becoming such a smart, fun-loving, empathetic little lady. She is at such a fun age and is just absorbing everything around her. She is such a quick learner. This girl loves to talk and hardly ever stops. She has stopped napping for about a month now and just has “quiet/alone” time in her room. This has been a hard transition for me because she comes out every 20 minutes or so to ask for help (i.e. interrupting my down time), but she hasn’t skipped a beat and doesn’t act tired what-so-ever without her nap. She is sleeping a good 12 hours a night, so this is probably why she doesn’t need her nap. She does a great job with wearing her “guck-kez” (glasses) and reminds me that she needs them in the mornings- such a blessing! We have been done with diapers even at night for about a week now and she is doing GREAT! She is so proud of herself for waking up dry and not wearing a pull up anymore… she hasn’t had any accidents yet. I am not gonna lie, I am a little shocked about this, I was prepared for lots of nights waking up to change sheets. I guess she was ready. She is 30 lbs and about 50% for height, weight and for her head.

Yarah and Weam our sweet little Arab friends.

#keepinitreal #reallife #toddlerlife

Side Note: I am going to try something new with my blog… once we have an event or something I want to post, I am going to try and upload the pics and do a blog post right away and not feel overwhelmed with trying to play catch up. When I have some extra time I will try to slowly go backward and catch up, but if I don’t then at least I am recording the now. Wish me luck!

I know this is several weeks late, but I still wanted to document Lydia’s first Easter!

A few days before Easter we went to Drew and Jord’s house to dye eggs (Liddy napped- next year she will want to be involved!) and of course we had to make deviled eggs with them… Chase and I’s Easter fav.

After the Good Friday service in her Easter Dress!

love this grin of hers

Our 3rd sunrise service in the desert! I love going to this service, one of the most encouraging days of the year! Praise be to Jesus for He has Risen and Lives!

Amazing the difference a year makes! This was taken after the service, Liddy went down for a 3 hour nap after getting up at 5:30 am. (notice Chase is wearing the same hat, but it is a bit more worn out after a year!)

Our delicious Easter breakfast that we enjoyed with great friends!

Easter basket time! Lydia got so excited about it… I was pleasantly surprised about it, I wasn’t sure if she would react, but she got totally into it…. it was so cute. She got a book that changes colors in the bathtub, a light up stackable toy and I made her a little bunny to chew on and covered 3 plastic eggs with yarn and filled them with beans- she loves shaking them. I also made a pacifier clip. I had so much fun putting together her basket, I look forward to many more baskets for our sweet little bug!

Here are two other spring crafts Lydia and I made! Since we don’t really have a spring here, Jord taught me how to make flowers to bring spring to our house!

“And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” 1 Corinthians 15:14, 20

We have so much to be thankful for this year. To name a few.. our sweet little turkey! We are so in love and could not be more thankful for her, my sweet little nephew Landon, wonderful family whom we can’t wait to see in a few short weeks, great friends, the ability to communicate (depends on the day how much, but at least much better than we were this time last year) in Arabic, and each other. I am so thankful to be on this journey with Chase- thankful for the husband he is and the dad he is becoming.

We were blessed to get to spend thanksgiving this year with some of our dearest friends out here plus some Brazilians and Costa Ricans! We had all the traditional foods- turkey (we found one in Dubai), green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, homemade rolls, pecan pie (pecans came America) and even cranberry sauce (yes it was found at an import store). And in my family Thanksgiving and Christmas is not complete without 7-layer dip! The only things that were missing (and were greatly missed) were the beauty of fall outside and our family & friends back home.

Thank you Jesus for all your blessings, your salvation, grace, and mercy you extend to us each day.

We celebrated Lydia’s first Halloween at a fall festival at our friend’s house. It was a great party, with awesome weather & yummy fall snacks! Since the seasons pretty much all feel the same here (well there is really hott, hotter, hot, and then nice) it is nice to get together with fellow Americans (or westerners) and celebrate the seasons changing & holidays together. This year Lydia slept through the whole party, it will be fun next year to see her running around trying to keep up with the bigger kids.

Lydia received 3 different Halloween outfits from Nanny & Gramzi-and of course she had to wear all of them! Thanks. Our little pumpkin turned 4 weeks on Halloween.

Lydia has lots of friends already! The little Tiger is just about 3 1/2 months older than her… can’t wait to see them play together. The pot-of-gold, rainbow, & Leprechaun (i.e., Sayla, Kead, & Evie) just love holding Liddy & they are really good at it! I made decaf Pumpkin Spice crockpot lattes for the party (from pintrest) & they were delicious! Perfect fall drink.

Happy Halloween & Fall to you all! Hope you had a great one complete with pumpkins, carmel apples & candy!